Controlling Product Inventory for B2B Customers

A system administrator can precisely control how much of your inventory displays when your trading partners or B2B customers perform an inquiry into your system. Controlling your product inventory protects your inventory details.

Using the Product Ranking screen and the B2B Inventory Control Maintenance screen, assign the following parameters:

• Rank - Indicates the products' demand.

• Basis - Further breaks down the product ranks. Use the basis along with the multiplier to calculate the amount of inventory that displays to your B2B business partner.

• Multiplier - The number by which to multiply the basis to determine the amount of inventory that displays.

For common settings, see Common Inventory Control Settings.

Product Inventory Example

Products in Rank #1 equal 50 percent of your most demanded products. The A-ranked products in Rank #1 are based on the number of times the product was sold (hits). You only want 20 percent of your A-ranked products' order point (the minimum amount of inventory you want to have on your shelves) to display to your B2B customers. Enter the following settings:

• Rank = 1

• Basis = Order Point

• Multiplier = .20

Anyone inquiring about an A-ranked product would only see 20 percent of your order point inventory as the available quantity. So, while you might have 100 of the product in inventory, the inquiry only shows 20.

Controlling Product Inventory

You can control inventory on a global level using the B2B Inventory Control Maintenance control maintenance record or at the individual customer level through that customer's maintenance settings.

To control product inventory globally:

1. Display the character-based system.

Note: The global B2B inventory control functionality has not been incorporated into Solar Eclipse as of this release.

2. From the System > System Files menu, select Control Maintenance to display the Control Maintenance screen.

3. In the Keyword field, type B2B Inventory Control to open the B2B Inventory Control Maintenance screen.

4. In the Br/Tr/All field, enter the branch or territory for which you want to control inventory.

5. In the Rank # field, enter the rank number for the products you want to control.

6. In the Basis field adjacent to the Rank letter, press F10 and select the basis amount to use for calculating how much of your inventory to display:

7. In the Multiplier field, enter the percentage by which to multiply the basis.

For example, entering .20 shows 20 percent of the basis inventory.

8. Press Esc to apply your settings and close the screen.

To control product inventory for a customer:

1. From the Maintenance menu, select Customer to display the Customer Maintenance window.

2. Open or create a customer maintenance record.

3. From the Orders menu, select Remote Order Entry Parameters to display the Remote Order Entry Parameters window.

4. From the Edit menu, select B2B Inventory Control to display the B2B Inventory Control Maintenance window.

5. In the Branch field, enter or select the branches or territories you want to control.

6. In the Rank # field, enter the rank number for the products you want to control and click Update.

7. In the Basis column adjacent to the Rank letter, enter or select the basis amount to use for calculating how much of your inventory to display:

8. In the Multiplier column, enter the percentage by which to multiply the basis.

For example, entering .20 shows 20 percent of the basis inventory.

9. Save your changes and return to the Customer Maintenance window.

10. Save the customer record and exit the window.

See Also:

Common B2B Inventory Control Settings

Product Ranking Overview

Setting Up Customers for B2B Commerce